If only for Cab Calloway's performance this would be the most awesome Boop, but the wonderful animation makes it one of my favorites.

A great early Bety Boop, with a real life intro by Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, with Cab cutting some mean steps as the band plays. Betty runs away from home with Bimbo - and winds up in a haunted cave where a spectral walrus sings "Minnie the Moocher" with the accompaniment of various ghostly choruses - awesome. Note the great tableaux behind the foreground action in the cave. Note that Betty actually has breasts and is wearing her signature backless short dress and sports her usual one garter - very sexy Betty. Unfortunately, the sound was very low - but still listenable, barely. Great stuff.

When Betty's parents are trying to make her eat her dinner, they speak in a European immigrant accent, and her father seems to be wearing a yarmulke--though with a spike of hair coming out the top.

Estas caricaturas tienen un nivel muy bueno en todo sentido, el toque de jazz muy bien logrado me encanto y me enchufo de principio a fin una obra maestra gracias por compartir.

This is from my childhood and me and my brothers use to love this one and Growing up we had the chance to me Mr Cab Callaway and he is so funny and a good person and we love his music also Thank You for the Great Films you have

Alway liked betty better when she was a dog. Strange how her boyfriend still is.

Wow this is a gem! Loved that the animator used Calloway's moves for Betty! I was lucky to have met Cab in person in Georgetown in the 80's...and yes he did speak in Scat! He's a legend!

It is always great to see Betty Boop but to get an introduction from Cab Callaway is an extra special treat. This is a very special movie clip that I will enjoy forever.

I got a real kick from watching this classic "Minnie the Moocher" from the famous Cab Calloway. Anyone that has seen the Blues Brothers, will get a charge from watching this original.

Great job...give me more!

Dirty Dingus Mcgee

Cab & his orchestra throw down some tasty jazz goodness to into Betty Boop... very tasty, indeed!

download these free precious gems of Americana while u still can because if there is one thing Ted Turner taught me "public domain" is not forever lol

Hi, I can't download clicking and pressing down ctlr (Mac) am I doing this right?

I've always loved Betty cartoons I'm glad I found a place that still has some to view

Only People who know about surreal things will rate this greatly,i rate this a 5 also we get to see the parents of Betty Boop which makes this superb

Not sure what Betty running away from home has to do with Cab's 79-year-old classic tune. But this little novelty has real historical value: the ecene of Cab and his ork in the intro is said to be his first filmed performance. And that dancing walrus is outta sight! His smooth moves mimic Cab's thanks to a now all-but forgotten technology called Rotoscoping.

Just to let some of the reviews know that some cartoons are for adults,sure as this one. This is five stars for sure,espeially with the "Cab Calloway"music,Simply wonderful!

One thing some of you might not know is that many of these old cartoons were geared toward adult audiences and not children, and were shown before the main attraction. There are a lot of old cartoons that you cannot see anymore because they have been deemed not politically correct.

This is my first ever Betty Boop cartoon, and the earliest cartoon I have ever seen. I have to say I am impressed, I haven't laughed like that in ages. I first heard Minnie the Moocher on the Blues Brothers movie and it is brilliant to see another adaption of it from such an early date (early for me at least). It is great to see the roots from which our modern cartoons came from, animations like these definitely have a timeless quality to them. This certainly isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it is mine.

I don't have much experience with Betty Boop cartoons but wholly Jesus! What the hell was that? Who ever made this must have been on acid or something cause this crap wasn't even remotely funny. Infact it was kinda creepy. Just awful!

this is excellent! i love betty boop cartoons! max fleischer was a great cartoonist! this cartoon is especially a great gem!

The cartoon might be public domain (unless they re-registered it), but I am pretty sure the song by Cab Calloway is still copyrighted for 95 years after publication, or 2026. As to the quality I found the audio and video of the mpeg version fine, and although the video has interlacing it is not too distracting.

Definitely one of my favorites, and why I love these Betty Boop cartoons - jazz!

Some one below mentioned something about Good for the kids to learn, etc.... These cartoons were originally shown before the Feature in Paramount Pictures Licensed Theatres before the main attraction. Not just for kids, but adults on big Move nights like Fri and Sat before A budget pictures. That's why they feature big stars of the day and have all those layers of double meanings. This one is also Pre Code, meaning before the Motion Picture Association cracked down on the entire industry to clean up what they considered Smut at the time. So there are little things in here you won't see in Later cartoons.

Absolutely Fleischer at his trippy best. The audio by todays standards is poor but was state of the art in the mid 30's. This rates as one of the best of the Calloway/Boop collaborations second only to Snow White (St. James Infirmary Blues)in its theme and execution. IMHO

Dear all:

Please be advised that the ToonCast versions of these videos (in QuickTime format) all have an added border advertising the ToonCast site, and two out of three have an added pre-roll with a big red "more" (at ToonCast)!

Vintage ToonCast has a download for this classic that has flawless audio...

bhbhl,jbibh

love this one! who knows where i can find the old "farmer alfalfa" cartoons of terrytoon fame? thanks! this site is awesome!!!!

Calloway is one of my newly discovered favorite artists and to add to the excitement of finding him amid Betty's films, he's drawn as a walrus. It's like a miracle!
I also liked Betty's song- I need to memorize it and sing it when I have to visit my mother...

the video portion is transferred just fine, but the audio is set to some dismally LOW level of 1 out 10, so one does NOT get to enjoy the vocal antics of betty boop or cab calloway.

I-) ihor

I saw this when I was young and impressionable, but I only remembered the latter bit with the ghosts and the walrus, so I didn't know it was a Boop. I always wanted to track this cartoon down, but didn't know where to start.

Suddenly it turns up DVD quality in my lap whilst I'm idly browsing archive.org! I nearly screamed when I saw the thumbnail.

Having re-watched it from this side of innocence, I think it goes a long way towards explaining why I'v turned out like I have.

Thank you for letting me re-live one of my earliest memories.

Incredibly odd and brilliant cartoon which mixes live action and 2d animation that was way ahead of its time. Calloway is on form as he performs his most famous hit, Check out the genuinely unsettling ghosts, demons and monster backing singers ;) Great!

They must have had an incredible amount of fun making this cartoon. Minnie gets caught up with a pot headed coke sniffin junkie who teaches her how to "kick the gong" ( mainline heroin ) . Later she meets up with a pimp, the king of Sweden, who gives her somethin she was needin' (a sad reality of the day for a number of young ladies in a different world around the other side of the tracks). This played on saturday morning cartoons all over america on the major networks. The suburban housewives of the time would have had coronariies had they understood it. This follows in the tradition of telling kids scarey stories about murders and birds plucking out their eyes, etc. that has always been so popular in anglo culture and prominent in lullabies and nursery rhymes.

Cab Calloway has a topnotch band and the kids are the winners here. They get a glimpse into a culture totally taboo and get to hear some of the finest jazzmen alive. Although they would not realize it for another twenty years. All in all the short had a good message for the kids to boot. Careful about running away there are dangers out there...This is one of the greatest popcultural works of all time. Thanks to the archives for making it available.

Wonderful music, inventive animation, a wild and weird cartoon. Highly recommended!

Wow!

A wonderful, surreal and genuinely scary piece of work. If I had seen this as a child I would have had nightmares for weeks! The animators of today would learn a lot if they were made to watch past masters such as this. Lots of wit and invention on display here. I particularly liked the gramophone business at the beginning. The sound levels are low - yes. But that in no way detracts from the enjoyment of the piece. I never really liked Betty as a child but now I'm willing to watch more on the strength of this.

Cab Calloway rocks!! Especially compared to the lame garbage that passes for music today! I think UG was projecting PC into this. Judging the past is tricky at best.

Re-Rated 18 Only.
Seen loads of this sort of stuff over a century ago, years just seem to fly pass, till about a year ago I hear a version of this on the radio, then discover RedHotJazz.com who stream loads of Jazz and now this PD cartoon version great stuff.
Not for the young ones this sort of stuff.

Although the sound level is so low I can barely hear it with all level volumes cranked.

I enjoyed this cartoon. The double edged humor of MF cartoons. And a guest appearance by Cab. If it were not for classic film such as reefer madness, the Blues Brothers, Reefer Madness. I think an interesting bit of the music world would be lost to the sands of time.

HideyhideyhideyHO, fix the sound and gimme some mo.